Week 11 football preview: While Eastbrook gains social media fame after ‘miracle,’ Zebras await

Call for Justice?: Pioneer preparing to face Frontier’s star QB returning from injury

BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS

Sports Editor, RTC

Eastbrook (10-0) at Rochester (9-1), 7:30 p.m.

(Winner plays Tipton-Eastern (Greentown) winner in Class 2A, Sectional 36 final)

It is not often that the Rochester football team can watch highlights of their opponent’s next game on “The Pat McAfee Show” on YouTube and ESPN, but few football games have had the ending that Eastbrook’s 37-36 win in overtime over Alexandria did last week.

There is seemingly no way that Eastbrook’s win could be described succinctly: Trailing 29-21, Eastbrook scored a touchdown on a play that involved multiple laterals on the last play of regulation. The touchdown was called back by penalty. Alexandria accepted the penalty, giving Eastbrook an untimed down on the Alexandria 42. Eastbrook threw a Hail Mary touchdown pass. Then Eastbrook converted a 2-point conversion to force overtime.

Then Alexandria scored first in the overtime and kicked an extra point to go up 36-29. Then Eastbrook scored a touchdown, and quarterback Bodie Howell crossed the goal line on a keeper for a walk-off two-point conversion.

Almost instantly on social media, the game was called “The Miracle At Alexandria.” Indianapolis Star high school sports reporter Kyle Neddenriep had Howell on his podcast. And McAfee made Eastbrook really famous.

The No. 8 Zebras, meanwhile, had no such drama in their 44-0 win over Elwood last week. They held Elwood to two first downs – none in the final 35 minutes – and 16 yards of total offense.

Offensively, they started substituting halfway through the second quarter, and 12 different players got to carry the ball. Sophomore reserve Aiden Wilson led the team with six carries.

Brant Beck returned to the backfield and had four carries after not playing offense in a Week 9 win over Maconaquah.

“I think the execution was pretty good,” Rochester coach Ron Shaffer said of the offense. “It’s hard to tell against a team like Elwood how much of an impact Brant really has because they’re just a poor team. … They’re not very mature, and so they’re playing a lot of very young guys.”

Eight of Rochester’s nine wins have ended with a running clock. In six of their wins, they have had a running clock for the entire second half.

Eastbrook, ranked No. 5, has had a more suspenseful narrative on their way to an undefeated season.

• They trailed Huntington North 14-7 at halftime in their opener Aug. 22 and rallied to win 21-20.

• They trailed Alexandria 24-21 in the fourth quarter in their regular season meeting Sept. 12 and came back to win 34-24.

• They skimmed by Madison-Grant 31-26 on Oct. 3.

• They trailed Oak Hill 3-0 at halftime in their regular season finale Oct. 17 but came back to prevail 21-3.

• And then there was their comeback last week against No. 12 Alexandria in their second meeting.

Winning is nothing new for Eastbrook football under coach Jeff Adamson. Now in his 36th season, Adamson is 329-106 and has won 16 sectionals, seven regionals and four semistates in 37 seasons. The 329 wins rank third among active coaches. (Mooresville’s Mike Gillin retired earlier this week, so Adamson presumably is set to ascend to No. 2 on the list behind Knox’s Russ Radtke.)

Eastbrook’s home stadium is named Jeff Adamson Stadium. One of his proteges is Greg Martz, currently the Rochester assistant athletic director. Greg Martz later became a head football coach at Frontier before beginning a career in athletic administration. Dave Martz, Greg’s father, was the athletic director who hired Adamson in 1988.

Adamson also has a link to Rochester’s past. He and former Rochester coach Mark Miller are friends and Manchester University alumni.

Adamson might be an example of how patience can pay off for a fanbase and community. Eastbrook had losing records in three of his first five seasons there before the Panthers broke through and won their first sectional in Adamson’s sixth season in 1993. Eastbrook has had only two losing seasons in the 32 seasons since, going 4-6 in both 2014 and 2024.

Eastbrook has not won a sectional since 2021, which means the Zebras will try to turn around a historical trend: Adamson has not gone four straight seasons without winning a sectional since that five-year run at the start of his coaching career. 

There is more history that might favor Eastbrook: Rochester has no history of beating a team in the postseason that was coming off an undefeated regular season. 

But then again, there is hope: In 2010, 2011 and 2015, Eastbrook had undefeated regular seasons but did not win their sectional.

Adamson is 3-2 against Rochester in his career. The teams split four regular season meetings between 2011-14. Eastbrook then beat Rochester 48-20 at Barnhart Field in the 2018 sectional semifinals in their lone postseason matchup. 

Like 2014, Eastbrook has followed a losing season with an undefeated regular season.

Howell and Ryder Gipson, both seniors, key Eastbrook’s Flexbone option ground game. They combined for 263 of Eastbrook’s 285 yards rushing last week against Alexandria, and they have combined for 2,094 yards rushing on the season.

Gipson is a fullback who will try to carve out yards between the tackles.

“He’s a fullback through and through,” Shaffer said. “He kind of runs upright, which is odd, but still is able to carry a pile. He has somewhat some breakaway speed early. I don’t think he’s going to beat you in a high-speed chase of like an 80-yard run, but he’s pretty good for the first 35 or 40 yards. If he’s doing that to you, their offense is being successful.”

Howell has accounted for 23 touchdowns – seven passing and 16 rushing. He is also a starting safety on defense.

“He just makes the right decision for the team,” Shaffer said of Howell as a quarterback. “In that option offense that they run, he’s making several decisions, whether he’s going to keep the ball first with the fullback or then getting on the perimeter. Is he going to pitch the ball or not? He’s disciplined enough to make the right decision instead of a selfish decision. There are times he makes wrong reads, but he makes up for it with his athleticism. I don’t think it’s anything about him trying to just say he’s going to take it on his shoulders and try to win the game. I just think he does a lot of things correctly.”

Jacob McDermit is Howell’s top pass-catching option: McDermit has 17 receptions while the rest of the team has 13 receptions combined. Matthew Slater caught the Hail Mary that helped extend Eastbrook’s season. It was the first touchdown reception in the career for Slater, a senior. He had three catches last week after catching just three passes in the regular season.

Defensively, Shaffer said Eastbrook will play a four-man front. Eastbrook gave up 234 yards rushing on 6.9 yards per carry against Alexandria last week, and they will be facing a Zebra wing-T offense that averages 322 yards rushing per game on 8.5 yards per carry for the season.

Four running backs – Brant Beck, Trenton Meadows, Jabez Yarber and Kale Shotts – all have over 400 yards rushing.

“4-3 was what I would probably call it – initially a 4-3,” Shaffer said. “They do play some 4-4. They’ll run what we call the old split-6 – a 4-4 and they roll the backers up on the line of scrimmage. We’ve seen them run a 7-1 on Madison-Grant. They’ll run multiple stuff, but everything bases out of an even-four front. … (Alexandria) had a lot of success running the ball through the heart of their defense.”

Shaffer was asked if his players had seen the social media posts and Pat McAfee video clips in which Eastbrook’s comeback last week was celebrated.

“I think they enjoyed just watching,” Shaffer said of his players. “Kind of the idea of seeing the guys that we’re going to be playing. Pat McAfee made the statement, ‘I think this kid’s unstoppable.’ I think our kids are OK with them thinking that. I think that puts a little chip on their shoulder that we’ll just see.

“I think they’re kind of hoping that maybe if we come away with the win, maybe we make the ‘Pat McAfee Show.’”

Shaffer said that junior inside linebacker Ethan Bailey remains “questionable” with a knee injury suffered in practice prior to the Elwood game. Beck is a “full go,” according to Shaffer.

If Rochester wins, they would play the sectional final on the road.

“I don’t know if they feel like they’re the underdog,” Shaffer said. “I think the morale and the feeling in the locker room is really good. I mean, they’re confident going into the game. There’s no fear. It’s just a healthy respect for a team that’s very good. We understand that we’ve got to be prepared and play.”

Frontier (10-0) at Pioneer (9-1), 7 p.m.

(Winner plays Taylor-Carroll (Flora) winner in Class 1A, Sectional 42 final)

Class 1A, No. 5 Pioneer got their fifth shutout of the season in a 35-0 win over Caston last week. It marked their 36th consecutive win over Caston dating back to 1996.

The Panthers’ 9.8 defensive scoring average ranks 14th in the state.

They harried Caston quarterback Gavin Mollenkopf when he went back to pass while also holding the Caston ground game to less than two yards per carry.

“That’s always a key for us when we go against a good passing attack, to get good pressure on the other team’s quarterback,” Pioneer coach Adam Berry said. “It throws off their rhythm and helps our cover guys when we get a good pass rush. So definitely a key getting four sacks on him last week. … They still got us on some big pass plays, but really I thought our defense as a whole just played really well. They got some big pass plays on us, but we prevented them from getting in the end zone, especially right before half. They got within the 10, and so I thought our guys just played hard. I thought they did their assignment and played extremely well.”

Offensively, all 362 of Pioneer’s total yards came on the ground. Caston was coming off a 35-13 win over Winamac in which they held the Warriors under 100 yards of total offense.

But Pioneer averaged 9.8 yards per carry against the same Caston defense. Noah VanMeter ran for a team-high 184 yards. VanMeter, Shiloh Rine and Micah Rans all had at least one carry in which they gained at least 40 yards.

Berry would like to see even better line play this week.

“I thought overall, our line played pretty good,” Berry said. “And we talked to the line on Saturday morning film and Monday film that it was far from their best game as well. They still fired off the ball. They still got up to the second level well. Obviously, we still had a nice night offensively, and we were able to spread it around a little bit, but VanMeter really got us going. … Our line did create the holes, but there are some things we definitely need to clean up moving forward.”

Now the Pioneer defense could see its biggest threat since their loss to Class 3A power Knox back in Week 2. No. 3 Frontier is undefeated and averaging 52 points per game, which ranks in a tie for fourth in the state and first among Class 1A teams.

Frontier is coming off a 50-14 win over Tri-County last week. The win was Frontier’s first in a sectional game since 2013. Coincidentally, this is the first meeting between Frontier and Pioneer in a postseason game since the Panthers blanked the Falcons 32-0 in the 2013 sectional final.

This is the teams’ eighth postseason meeting. Frontier won the first three in 1987, 1994 and 1995 while Pioneer has won the last four. 

Pioneer routed Frontier 62-6 in their most recent meeting in the 2014 regular season when both were still Midwest Conference rivals. Pioneer moved on to the new Hoosier North the following year.

Frontier has not beaten Pioneer since a 27-13 win in the 2000 regular season.

Coach Jack Barron, a Plymouth grad who played for his father John in high school, is 18-1 with two Midwest Conference championships in two seasons at Frontier. His only loss was to Carroll (Flora) in last year’s sectional quarterfinal. Prior to that, Frontier had gone 10-20 in three seasons prior to Barron taking over.

Berry is preparing as if quarterback Ayden Justice will play for the Falcons. He did not play against Tri-County last week.

“We expect Justice,” Berry said. “We heard that he may have had not a season-ending injury, but we’ve heard he had an injury, and I think they just had him out the last couple weeks. But we fully expect Justice to be back there this week. … He’s definitely a true dual-threat quarterback. He does a great job running their offense. He does a great job running the ball, but when it comes to his pass play, he’s more of a drop-back-and-stay-in-the-pocket-type guy, but he will scramble, and he is just a straight-up athlete, and he can make plays when it’s not necessarily there, and he has a ton of weapons around him.”

Senior Dylan Brown filled in for Justice last week, and he could return to a backfield with Justice this week. Senior Dustin Stagge and freshman Sawyer Maxwell are also backfield threats in the running game.

“They have a great combination back there,” Berry said. “(Stagge), he runs hard. … And between him and Justice, it is a two-threat offense back there. … I believe they are leading 1A in offensive average. And they’re hardly giving up any touchdowns a game either. It’s definitely going to be a dogfight.”

Defensively, Frontier allows just 11.4 points per game. If that number holds up, it will be their best defensive scoring average since 2000.

Berry said their speed stands out.

“Once again, they have athletes on both sides of the ball,” Berry said. “And that’s simply using their athletes to get to the ball. They don’t have a ton of size (compared) with some teams that we go against, but they are quick, and that’s sometimes with what we have struggled with in the past is going against a quicker-type of defense. If you look at their defense, they have a lot of skill-position (uniform) numbers out there. They don’t have a ton of 50s, 60s, 70s numbers on the field. That just shows you they have a lot of speed over there, and they want to use that to get to the ball.”

If Pioneer wins, they will play their sectional final against either Taylor or Carroll on the road.